Peterborough man who smashed windows of Nationwide bank, threw lit cigarette at brother and sent abusive texts to mother jailed

A man who admitted smashing the windows of the Nationwide Building Society in Peterborough city centre has been jailed.

Darren Wyer, 43, was approached by police in the early hours of Sunday October 13, after receiving reports of a man with a hammer. He was found sitting on a bench near the bank on Long Causeway.

CCTV later revealed he had hit the building society’s windows twice with the hammer, cracking them, before calmly walking away. He returned 30 minutes later and hit the windows three more times.

It was not the first time police had been called that weekend to incidents involving Wyer, of Bittern Way, Fletton, Peterborough.

Late on Saturday (October 12) he had thrown a duffel bag at his brother’s van windscreen and hit the driver’s window with a hammer. He threw a lit cigarette at his brother and shouted abuse while throwing the hammer at his brother’s house.

Wyer had also previously intimidated his mother by sending abusive emails and texts.

Wyer was already serving a suspended sentence for using an axe to smash the windows of Barclays, in Cathedral Square, in March.

Wyer was sentenced at Cambridge Crown Court on Monday (December 9) to 19 months in prison after pleading guilty at an earlier hearing to threatening and abusive behaviour, common assault, destroying or damaging property and breaching a suspended sentence.

PC Danielle Hunt said: “Wyer had been given a second chance by the courts through an earlier suspended sentence for possession of an offensive weapon and criminal damage which he completely disregarded with his recent actions.

“His continual aggression and harassment of his family has impacted upon their lives as well as his.”